ANALYSIS: Administration can't shake itself out of Russia pattern

— -- It’s the story that just won’t go away for President Trump and his administration: Russia.

Before last night, this week was a good one for the president after a difficult first month for the new administration.

The drip, drip of Russia news since the election has dampened any potential honeymoon period, and Tuesday’s first Trump address to Congress held the promise of changing that. But with fresh revelations about contacts between Trump’s attorney general and the Russian government, that hope is gone.

As The Washington Post first reported last night, Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the 2016 campaign, when the then-Alabama senator was serving as a close adviser to the campaign. Critically, Sessions did not disclose this information when he was questioned directly about contact with the Russians under oath during his confirmation hearing.

That fits a problematic pattern for the Trump White House, which has already seen its first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, lose his job over being less than forthcoming about contacts with the Russians.

Sessions tweaked his previous comments by issuing a fresh statement last night, saying that he "never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign,” and calling the allegation “false.” It’s a clever way of phrasing, since now it’s clear he did meet with the ambassador – just not, in Sessions’ telling, to discuss the campaign.

Failing to disclose those meetings when asked directly has prompted new questions about the administration's overall credibility on the story.

ABC’s Jonathan Karl and Cecilia Vega have asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer and the president himself if anyone associated with the Trump campaign has had any contact with Russia during the election period. In January before his inauguration, Trump denied to Vega that anyone in his campaign had any contact with Russia leading up to the election. Last month, Spicer told Karl "I don't have any -- I -- there's nothing that would conclude me that anything different has changed with respect to that time period."

As for the fallout, Democrats pounced last night, calling on Sessions to recuse himself from any investigation into Russian interference in the election. Those calls for recusal were answered, but the outcry is far from over with Democrats going further, asking for his resignation and even pointing out the penalties of perjury.

Sessions has not been charged with a crime and said his answer to Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., about Russia during the confirmation hearing "was honest and correct as I understood it at the time."

Russia entanglements mark the most important story facing the administration. It’s been there all along – throughout a campaign where Hillary Clinton’s team strongly hinted that Trump associates were behind Russian hacking of prominent Democrats.

Trump famously portrayed Clinton as unethical and dishonest. He can’t escape those labels now without action, as well as a clean investigation.

Trump and his top aides are very likely angry that this firestorm is stepping on the positive reviews of his joint address to Congress. But this is now too far along to have a quick and clean ending for the White House.